Focused Feedback: Powerset - Gravity Control

[The Curator]

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Gravity Control

 Gravity Distortion Field

• Changed to location based power.
• Now summons an area of effect pseudopet that lasts up to 45s and will hold random enemies within.
• Power now inflicts smashing damage when it holds enemies.
• Now takes damage enhancements and sets.
• Should now apply the Gravity Distortion effect to all enemies that enter its area of effect.
• Increased duration from 45s to 60s, set stacking to replace.

 

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[BillyMailman]

Haven't loaded up Beta yet to see if it's an in-game issue, but I noticed this going through the patch notes and figured I'd mention it: Gravity Distortion Field needs an icon update, same as Paralyzing Blast/Tesla Coil got, to use the location-targeted outer ring thing.

[Shaladar]

Will the updated power apply the Gravity Distortion effect for the bonus Impact damage from Lift and Propel?

[Nayeh]

On 5/26/2025 at 7:06 AM, The Curator said:

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• Now summons an area of effect pseudopet that lasts up to 45s and will hold random enemies within.

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Who asked for this change?

Why did we decide to make it a Pseudo-pet?

What exactly does this "random" part mean? Is it basically a Time Distortion Field now?

[PeregrineFalcon]

On 5/26/2025 at 4:06 AM, The Curator said:

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Gravity Control

 Gravity Distortion Field

• Changed to location based power.
• Now summons an area of effect pseudopet that lasts up to 45s and will hold random enemies within.
• Power now inflicts smashing damage when it holds enemies.
• Now takes damage enhancements and sets.

My only Controller is Grav/Storm, so my perspective may be limited.

 

It looks to me like the purpose behind adding Adaptive Recharge to AoE Holds in other sets is to allow a quick retry if the power misses/affects few foes, and to allow soloers to use their AoE hold more often, but tone them down so they're not overpowered on full teams. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

So if I am correct about that, can I ask why Adaptive Recharge wasn't added to Gravity Distortion Field? Why change it to a pseudopet that only holds some enemies but not others? Doesn't that make the power less reliable (unless it's Auto Hit on the enemies it randomly chooses) than the way it was before?

[Uun]

Either something is way off in the hold duration or the in-game detailed description needs to be fixed. I've got GDF 5-slotted with Gladiator's Net, plus I've got Intuition Radial, so I've effectively got +117.6% hold duration. In the short description (when you hover over the power), it shows a base/enhanced hold duration of 14.9s/32.4s (all good), but the detailed description shows 59.6s/2m9s. Similarly, the 20% chance of mag 1 hold (Overpower) has a duration of 11.17s/24.31s in the short description but 55.87s/2m1s in the detailed description.

 

In addition to the primary hold and Overpower, the detailed description also shows a 5% chance of a mag 3 hold with a duration of 52.15s/1m53s. This 3rd hold component doesn't appear in the short description.

 

Adding damage to GDF is fine, but I don't think it was necessary. The amount of damage it does is trivial, and GDF already accepted 6 %dmg procs before the change.

 

 

[noogens2]

From what I tried, it feels worse than before.  Grav distortion was the only instant AOE CC that gravity got.  With this change, you'll have to drop this behind a wall or out of sight to avoid lots of retaliation.  In isolation, this change would be a net win due to the stronger control with the repeated pulses, but in the context with the other powers in gravity, the set feels slightly slower overall and more situationally dangerous against things like ambushes where an instant CC could be the difference between life or death.   Also the graphics are a bit too subtle and are not as obvious compared to other similar powers like volcanic gasses.  

[Vanden]

11 minutes ago, noogens2 said:

Grav distortion was the only instant AOE CC that gravity got.

 

What about Dimension Shift?

[Heatstroke]

3 minutes ago, Vanden said:

 

What about Dimension Shift?

 My go to was always Wormholing them and then spam Crushing Field.. I do agree however that Grav lacks some of the Soft Control stuff that other sets have. 

[noogens2]

25 minutes ago, Vanden said:

 

What about Dimension Shift?

 

Even after all the changes to it, it's still (in my opinion) the worst power in the set and I will die on that hill.  

[Electronuts]

3 hours ago, noogens2 said:

 

Even after all the changes to it, it's still (in my opinion) the worst power in the set and I will die on that hill.  

I also hate Dim shift, it was always a mess and they just polished a turd.

 

I like the new hold patch version of GDF, I wish the levitation effect would apply more consistently, some held foes still stay standing on the ground and in my view, seeing someone levitate off the floor is the coolest part of playing grav (then throwing a forklift truck at them).

 

All the animations in grav still make it feel like you are playing in slow motion, that really needs looking at.

[NO WARRANTY]

My grav/dark dom relies on this power. Due to its lengthly recharge I feel I move through the game at half-speed intervals. Will this change allow more frequent uses of the power, and, on average, how consistently?

[Saarei]

Losing the ability to instantly lock down a group feels like a pretty big loss. Does the pseudopet cast frequently enough to make up for that?

[Midnight Mystique]

There are already 2 'hold' field powers in the game: Shadow field in darkness control and volcanic gasses in earth control. I have only a small amount of experience with shadow field and none with volcanic gasses so I guess the question is - how does the new GDF compare to those two powers? If it is NOT getting the adaptive recharge feature then it at least needs to be as useful a control as SF/VG. If not, then this is an overall nerf of the power, not an improvement. 

 

Anyone play enough of all three to give good feedback on that?

Edited June 10 by Midnight Mystique

[noogens2]

After the last few patches, GDF definitely feels better than the first initial pass.  It feels like a net positive now.

[Kaballah]

Please consider adding a trawl effect to GDF similar to Black Hole, it makes sense and would be fun. Thanks.

[Heliphyn34u]

I don't understand the rationale behind changing Gravity Distortion Field to a location-based AoE.  Does employing a pseudopet simplify the coding somehow?

 

Adding damage and/or reducing recharge duration would be great improvements to utility, but it's weird that the trade-off is making GDF location-based.  It's clunky to use against flying enemies -- I was initially concerned that it wouldn't be usable against flying enemies at all, but through testing I learned that if you are far enough away from the enemy, you can place the target in the air.  If you're too close, the target defaults to the ground.  Fiddly to use on a moving target.

 

5 hours ago, Kaballah said:

Please consider adding a trawl effect to GDF similar to Black Hole, it makes sense and would be fun. Thanks.

 

Very much agreed with this. ^  Adding a trawl effect to Gravity Distortion Field would fit well with the powerset in general and this power specifically.

 

[MC333]

Has anyone figured out the details behind how Gravity Distotion Field (GDF) is actually working?

Gravity Dominator:  Is GDF Domination working?  (I only tested a Controller)

 

 

Personally, I think I would have preferred if GDF received the Adaptive AOE treatment... but I do see there are some advantages/use cases for this longer lasting patch.

 

Tested GDF on Peregrine Island versus various outdoor groups. 

Controller level 50

Observations (have not yet attempted a deep dive into logs, etc.)

Slightly soft as opener - can take 1-2s to hold, seeing occasional return fire.  

Hold - long duration holds.

Containment damage - appears to be working

Overpower - rolls and hits are occuring, Bosses are held.

DoT over 60s - damage is nice addition for solo or small team play, but DoT over 60s is too slow for the majority of team play. 

Recharge adjustment to 180s - seems fair, given GDF is long duration hold 60s patch which recharges in ~60s vs. the other new Adaptive Recharge AOE's with short duration holds.

 

Suggestion:  frontload/condense the DoT damage to occur in the first 30s.  

Edited June 10 by MC333

[stryve]

22 hours ago, Midnight Mystique said:

There are already 2 'hold' field powers in the game: Shadow field in darkness control and volcanic gasses in earth control. I have only a small amount of experience with shadow field and none with volcanic gasses so I guess the question is - how does the new GDF compare to those two powers? If it is NOT getting the adaptive recharge feature then it at least needs to be as useful a control as SF/VG. If not, then this is an overall nerf of the power, not an improvement. 

 

Anyone play enough of all three to give good feedback on that?

There's also Tear Gas from Arsenal Control.  I've used all three, and as far as actual control goes, new GDF is about the same.  Pretty solid at locking down large groups, though the slight delay before initial pulse can let mobs react before freezing.  Bosses and other mez resistant mobs may need a few pulses to stack Mag before being Held, which means they need to be kept within the field.  Absolutely excels at long fights and any time multiple groups can be funneled through a specific area (pulls, ambushes, etc.).  

 

In terms of direct damage, none are great (Shadow Field doesn't actually do any damage at all).  With GDF qualifying targets for Impact damage from other Gravity powers however (Lift, Propel, Lift from Singularity) , I'd say it comes out ahead.  Gravity also has a built-in method of moving mobs directly with Wormhole, which is not present in Arsenal or Earth.  The changes to Black Hole will give Dark a similar option, though the mechanics are different enough I don't know how the utility of each will stack up against the other.  Finally, Singularity is amazing at grouping mobs and keeping them in one spot...at least until it randomly decides to flee.  The new pet controls will give Controllers an advantage over Dominators there, but Teleport Target works decently at getting Singularity where you want it.

[Uun]

In addition to GDF, several other AoE holds were converted to location AoEs with Page 2: Electric/Tesla Coil and Plant/Vines. If I'm counting correctly, that means that 6 of the 12 control primaries are now location based.

[Uun]

Same bug affecting Vines is affecting the RC1 version of Gravity Distortion Field. Hold duration is 2-3s. Combat log (GDF shows up in Pet Combat), is showing a significant number of misses with a 26.93% chance to hit, which shouldn't be possible. Mission is against lvl 52-53 Rikti (I'm 50+1). GDF is 5-slotted with lvl 50 Gladiator's Net (all except proc) for 71.4% acc enhancement, an additional 37% in global acc bonuses, plus Tactics for 11.99% in tohit bonuses.

 

EDIT:

Just checked again on another spawn and got 6.61% chance to hit on 14 targets on the initial activation.

 

Edited June 12 by Uun
Additional info

[Captain Powerhouse]

This issue is already fixed internally. Please test again once RC2 is out.

[MC333]

Quote

 Gravity Distortion Field

• Now summons a Pseudopet that will hold up to 16 foes on summoning and then continue to hold up to 5 every 4 seconds for 60 seconds.
• Now inflict smashing damage to up to 5 foes every 4 seconds
• Now takes damage enhancements and sets.
• Now applies a -Speed debuff on up to 16 foes in the area of effect
• Now applies the Gravity Distortion effect to all enemies that enter its area of effect

 

Opinion:  I would strongly prefer the Adaptive AOE Hold treatment be applied to the old Gravity, Plant, and Electric AOE Holds.

 

I have been intentionally open minded about the 3 new pseudopet patch AOE Holds, testing in all of the builds.  I really do appreciate the thought/effort that went toward creating a new type of hold with damage.  However, I don't think the 60s pseudopet holds are a fit for the game.  Player feedback shows the Adaptive AOE's are popular and the pseudopet patches are not. 

 

Adaptive AOE Holds are a clever solution, flexible for use in a wide vareity of playstyles, team sizes, and difficulty settings.  Pseudopet patches on the other hand are clearly very complicated to code/implement, have issues scaling up versus +level enemies, and will be more difficult and time consuming to fix and balance in the future.  It's not too late to pivot to the simpler flexible Adaptive solution which will please players and reduce Dev headaches now and in the future.  🙂

 

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Tested:  Gravity Distortion Field (GDF) in RC1 on a L50 Gravity Controller.   Intentionally tested vs. only 1 foe to allow quick parsing of combat log.

 

Results:  GDF was effective vs. a single level 50 enemy.  Note this testing obviously did not address the four new foe caps 16/5/5/16 listed above.

 

Test Results:  Versus 1 Level 50 Lieutenant (Nemesis & Crey)

In Both Tests: 

- Hold (unenhanced) effect was in place for entire 57s (power analyzer)

- Damage ticks 12.61 rolled every 4s for 58s

- Recharge is back to 240s  

- Slow debuff was not observed due to enemy was Held for entire duration

 

Test 1:  Total Damage (unenhanced) = 189.  11 ticks + 4 containment.  Over first 30s Damage (unenhanced) = 100

Test 2:  Total Damage (unenhanced) = 239.  15 ticks + 4 containment.  Over first 30s Damage (unenhanced) = 126

Note:  Enemy Hit me 1 time despite being held.  Log shows Hit 2 seconds after Held.  I have seen return fire in all builds of GDF.  Based on eyeballs guesstimate in all builds, on average 2 of a group of 8 will return fire once even when entire group is successfully held.

 

Power Discrepancy:  As pointed out earlier in thread the power description says Location AOE, but Info - Power Type says Click.  Power currently works as a Targeted AOE / Click. 

[Vinceq98]

I really hope they scrap the pseudopet patch for holds. It's antiquated and no one needs 60 secs of shutdown when death is also perfectly acceptable for of CC that the game offers too.  Mind control, ice, illusion, symphony all came up winners from this patch. 

[stryve]

Personally, I like patch holds, at least as they are currently implemented on Live (Dark, Earth, Arsenal).  I even prefer Location AoE over Targeted AoE for such patches, though I am aware this is a contentious opinion.  I also feel that Gravity in particular is well suited to leveraging the advantages of a patch Hold.

 

Really, I only have a few complaints about the new patch holds as presented in RC1, and the last isn't actually about the new patches at all.

• Something about the transition to "True Pseudo-Pets" is causing issues not seen with existing patch Holds on Live, which is definitely problematic.  If this can't be resolved, I would support shifting to Adaptive Recharge for the new patches and leaving existing patches as they are on Live.
• I prefer the flexibility offered by Location AoEs over the convenience of Targeted AoEs, at least for Mez patches.
• Given the choice, I would take a 180 second base recharge over the initial 16 target Hold.  But then, I've long thought 240 seconds base (or max, with Adaptive Recharge) is excessive for AoE Holds.  What do they offer that warrants such a massive increase compared to a Blast Set T9 with almost the same Mez plus massive damage on a 125, 145, or 170 second base recharge?
• I am annoyed that 4 of the seven Arsenal powers that interact with Containment are being reduced from 100% to 33% chance of triggering Containment.  I understand that this is probably to bring all pets and pseudo-pets into alignment with the changes this Page, but it's still aggravating.